Master's of Lean and Six Sigma

For More Information and List of Books on Mr. Whitney Click the Photo Above.

Eli Whitney was a famous American inventor in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Most people know Mr. Whitney for his invention of the cotton gin. He was born in 1765 and attended Yale University. While his cotton gin invention was in fact revolutionary many people attempted to steal the idea which ultimately led to Mr. Whitney changing his focus to guns and ammunition. At this time muskets required a great deal of manual labor and time to build. To reduce the amount of time and complexity associated with building a musket Mr. Whitney began building interchangeable parts which certainly improved the changeover times and reduced the need for workers to setup and re-setup with each musket. As a result of these interchangeable parts the assembly or assemble to order concept was created. Along with the design of interchangeable parts Mr. Whitney spent a great deal of time studying the motion of workers and people. Mr. Whitney’s drive and passion for improving things then lead to what we know today as time and motion studies. One might guess that even during the industrial revolution many different forms of waste were revealed.

The Following is a great biography borrowed from: Fukuokaprize. Please note there are not many biographies on this pioneer, master of the Affinity diagram which is widely used in project management today. If you have any additional information on this Master, please feel free to share, link and comment in the comments section below. Your name will be cited with the contributions and we would be more than happy to link to a page of yours if you would like.

Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, (June 18, 1926 – August 18, 2001) was a businessman and author who contributed to management, theory and advocated quality in many different ways. Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company. As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.

William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop the sampling techniques still used today by the U.S. Department of Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In his book, The New Economics for Industry, Government, and Education, Deming championed the work of Walter Shewhart who used techniques such as: statistical process control, operational definitions, and what Deming called the "Shewhart Cycle" which would later evolve into the PDCA and PDSA cycles we know today.

Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962), was an author who published as R. A. Fisher, he was also a very accomplished English statistician and biologist. Fisher used mathematics to combine Mendelian genetics and natural selection, which ultimately helped to create the new Darwinist synthesis of evolution known as the modern evolutionary synthesis. He was also a prominent eugenicist in the early part of his life. Mr. Fisher worked at Rothamsted Research for 14 years beginning in 1919. It was here where he developed the analysis of variance (ANOVA) which is still used today in six sigma to analyse immense amounts of data. In Fisher's case it was used to analyse crop experiments. Later, Mr. Fisher established a reputation as a biostatistician.

In 1935 The Design of Experiments was published. The book was written by the EnglishstatisticianRonald Fisher about design of experiments and is considered a foundational work in experimental design. Among other contributions, the book introduced the concept of the null hypothesis in the context of the lady tasting tea experiment. Mr. Fisher died in July of 1962 after leaving a powerful legacy full of influence on the world of statistics and six sigma.

Born in 1909 Shigeo Shingo would become one of the most influential figures in lean manufacturing. After graduating from Yamanashi technical college Dr. Shingo went to work for the Taipei Railway Company. Shortly after he was transferred to a manufacturing plant in Yokohama by the name of Amano Manufacturing. Dr. Shingo immediately went to work improving production by 100%.

In about 1955 Dr. Shingo went to work for Toyota. It was there that he developed the system we know today as SMED and Error Proofing. Legend has it that Dr. Shingo was able to reduce the set-up time of a 1,000 ton press from 4 hours to a mere 3 minutes. All throughout Dr. Shingo's life he travelled the world giving talks and performing remarkable consulting projects. Dr. Shingo has written more than 10 books and countless cited papers used in the manufacturing world. After many years of hard work Utah State University created an award known today as the Shingo prize which is given for the remarkable performance of manufacturers.

Everyday all around the world legends are born. Gurus and Legends are forged in the blink of a moment, often from publicity alone. The fact is you don't have to write a book to be considered a Lean or Six Sigma. In fact a guru is defined as an influential teacher or a popular expert by many. With that said each of us have a list of Gurus in the Lean and Six Sigma world that we look up to. Many of them teaching us skills day in and day out without ever asking for recognition. On this page you can submit those gurus to be featured on the Masters of Lean Six Sigma page. Simply fill out the form below and submit your biography to the community.

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Dr. Feigenbaum was an American quality control guru who specialized in Total Quality Control. Dr. Feigenbaum received his PH.D. in economics from MIT and shortly after was named the director of manufacturing operations at General Electric before moving on to become President and CEO of General Systems Company which was located in Pittsfield Massachusetts. Feigenbaum wrote several books on the topic of Quality Management including: Total Quality Control and The Power of Management Innovation. Dr. Feigenbaum was best known for his contributions in quality, some of which included:

"Total quality control is an effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance, and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organization so as to enable production and service at the most economical levels which allow full customer satisfaction."

The concept of a hidden factory which is the idea that so extra work is performed in correcting mistakes which we may not see right away.

Accountability for quality: Because quality is everybody's job, it may become nobody's job. This is the idea that quality must be actively managed and have visibility at the highest levels of management.

Genichi Taguchi was an engineer and statistician who was born and raised in the textile town of Tokamachi. He initially studied textile engineering at Kiryu Technical College with the intention of entering the family kimono business. However, with the escalation of World War II in 1942, he was drafted into the Astronomical Department of the Navigation Institute of the Imperial Japanese Navy.After the war, in 1948 Mr. Taguchi joined the Ministry of Public Health and Welfare, where he came under the influence of eminent statistician Matosaburo Masuyama. He also worked at the Institute of Statistical Mathematics during this time and supported experimental work on the production of penicillinat Morinaga Pharmaceuticals, a Morinaga Seika company.​

​ Frederick Taylor was a mechanical engineer who pioneered the principles of scientific management. He was passionate about improving efficiency during the late 1800's through the early 1900's. Frederick's efforts in applying engineering principles to factory environments were some of the first to later develop into what we know today as industrial engineering. Taylor passed the entrance exam for Harvard but did not attend Harvard. Instead of pursuing extended education he chose to become an apprentice patternmaker and a machinist at Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia. Eventually Mr. Taylor would complete his apprenticeship and move on to climb the ladder of the Midvale Steel Works. It was here that Fredericks talents would eventually lead him to hold such positions as chief engineer.